Obama & Biden
Aug 31, 2008 11:18 Filed in: Nation/World Subjects Politics
I haven’t blogged the primaries, mainly because so many other first-class bloggers have been doing that job very well. In a few more days, however, John McCain and Sarah Palin will become the official nominees of the Republican Party and the battle will be joined in earnest.
In the absence of a coup or massive vote theft, Barak Obama and Joe Biden will be president and vice-president of the United States come next January 20.
I’ve always felt that Biden had many good qualities, but I have been concerned for many years at his support of U.S. imperialism in South America (and yes, imperialism in exactly the correct word for a century of military and economic support of right-wing dictators friendly to U.S. business interests). He supported the corrupt and oppressive bankruptcy act that, while allowing millionaires to discharge their debts, forces middle class debtors into Chapter 13 plans, keeping them in bondage to credit card companies for as long as 5 years.
Given the realities, however, Biden is as good a running mate as Obama could have gotten. Biden is the ultimate insider and his senate seat is not in danger of falling to a Republican when he leaves. Besides, given Obama’s relative youth and good health, Biden is very unlikely to become president in the next 4 or even 8 years.
McCain, in announcing his choice of Sarah Palin as running mate, certainly managed to upstage Obama the day after the close of the Democratic convention, but I think he will pay a heavy price for it. The closest I can come to a similar choice was George H. W. Bush’s choosing Dan Quayle or perhaps Ronald Reagan’s choosing Richard Schweiker as his running mate in his attempt to unseat Gerald Ford as the incumbent in 1986. Palin has virtually no qualifications to be president, and preliminary reports on her background reflect very little interest on her part in Federal governance prior to McCain’s inviting her to be his running mate.
It is hard to believe that McCain is even serious about running for president, having chosen a running mate with such patently obvious limitations.
But I thought Ronald Reagan’s limitations were obvious. Boy, was I mistaken!
In the absence of a coup or massive vote theft, Barak Obama and Joe Biden will be president and vice-president of the United States come next January 20.
I’ve always felt that Biden had many good qualities, but I have been concerned for many years at his support of U.S. imperialism in South America (and yes, imperialism in exactly the correct word for a century of military and economic support of right-wing dictators friendly to U.S. business interests). He supported the corrupt and oppressive bankruptcy act that, while allowing millionaires to discharge their debts, forces middle class debtors into Chapter 13 plans, keeping them in bondage to credit card companies for as long as 5 years.
Given the realities, however, Biden is as good a running mate as Obama could have gotten. Biden is the ultimate insider and his senate seat is not in danger of falling to a Republican when he leaves. Besides, given Obama’s relative youth and good health, Biden is very unlikely to become president in the next 4 or even 8 years.
McCain, in announcing his choice of Sarah Palin as running mate, certainly managed to upstage Obama the day after the close of the Democratic convention, but I think he will pay a heavy price for it. The closest I can come to a similar choice was George H. W. Bush’s choosing Dan Quayle or perhaps Ronald Reagan’s choosing Richard Schweiker as his running mate in his attempt to unseat Gerald Ford as the incumbent in 1986. Palin has virtually no qualifications to be president, and preliminary reports on her background reflect very little interest on her part in Federal governance prior to McCain’s inviting her to be his running mate.
It is hard to believe that McCain is even serious about running for president, having chosen a running mate with such patently obvious limitations.
But I thought Ronald Reagan’s limitations were obvious. Boy, was I mistaken!
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